ΤΟ PR4825 1846 V. I MAIN THE REVEREND SYDNEY SMITH, THE ORIGINAL PROJECTOR OF THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, LONG ITS BRIGHTEST ORNAMENT, AND ALWAYS MY TRUE AND INDULGENT FRIEND, I NOW DEDICATE THIS REPUBLICATION; FROM LOVE OF OLD RECOLLECTIONS, AND IN TOKEN OF UNCHANGED AFFECTION AND ESTEEM. F. JEFFREY. ADVERTISEMENT ΤΟ THE SECOND EDITION. I AM very proud to learn that a new Edition of this collection is required: And, as books in three volumes are understood to sell better than books in four, I am also well pleased that it is to appear in this form. The first suggestion was, that the retrenchment would be best made, by leaving out the dullest fourth of the original publication,—without any change in the size of the volumes: and the proposal appeared to me so reasonable, that I readily undertook to point out the necessary omissions. But I soon found that I had not sufficiently calculated on the natural weaknesses of an author. For, I had scarcely taken up the expurgatory pencil, till-patriæ cecidere manus! and I was forced to acknowledge that I had not Roman virtue enough, so to decimate the hapless issue of my brain. I was obliged therefore to throw myself upon the generosity of the Proprietors; who, with their wonted courtesy, at once consented to spare me this sacrifice; and to accomplish the requisite reduction, by such a multiplication of the pages in each volume, as has now enabled them to compress the whole contents of the former four into the present three. Some old readers of the Review have assured me, that the selection, (which is now again submitted to the public,) had been very injudiciously made; and several have even favoured me with hints for amending it, the event of such an opportunity arising as has now fortunately occurred. But I have not courage enough to avail myself of these suggestions: and feel that my most becoming as well as most prudent course is, to abide by the one appeal I have so recently made to the public and to await the sequel of that judgment which admits of no ultimate question, and has hitherto been so much more favourable to me than I had any reason to expect. F. J. Craigcrook, Sept. 1846. PREFACE. No reasonable man, I suppose, could contemplate without alarm, a project for reprinting, with his name, a long series of miscellaneous papers-written hastily, in the intervals of graver occupations, and published anonymously, during the long course of Forty preceding years! —especially if, before such a suggestion was made, he had come to be placed in a Situation which made any recurrence to past indiscretions, or rash judgments, peculiarly unbecoming. I expect therefore to be very readily believed, when I say that the project of this publication did not originate, and never would have originated with me: And that I have been induced to consent to it, only after great hesitation; and not without misgivings — which have not yet been entirely got over. The true account of the matter is this. The papers in question are the lawful property, and substantially at the disposal, of the publishers of the Edinburgh Review: And they, having conceived an opinion that such a publication would be for their advantage, expressed a strong desire that I should allow it to go out with the sanction of my name, and the benefit of such suggestions as I might be disposed to offer for its improvement: and having, in the end, most liberally agreed that I should have the sole power both |